The present invention relates to a switch unit, and particularly to a switch unit in which the operational feeling of a touch panel is improved and a game machine equipped with the same.
Conventionally, there has been a game machine called a slot machine. In a slot machine, a plurality of reels on each of which a plurality of types of symbols are displayed are spun. Then, a winning combination (“yaku”) is determined on the basis of a matching pattern of symbols that are displayed when the reels are stopped and the matched symbols, and a prize is given according to the determined winning combination and the number of bets.
Further, operations such as the setting of the number of bets, and the spinning of the reels have been performed by pressing a button. More specifically, a player presses a bet button with his/her hand to determine the number of bets to be set. Further, when a player presses a reel spinning button with his/her hand, a win lottery result is determined. After the determination of the win lottery result, the spin of the reels is started, and the reels are automatically stopped.
In the meantime, a slot machine is placed, for example, in a casino. In a casino, not only slot machines manufactured by a single game machine manufacturer, but also slot machines manufactured by various game machine manufacturers are placed. A player selects a slot machine that suits his/her preference from slot machines manufactured by various game machine manufacturers, and plays the selected one. Therefore, each casino takes the business strategy to ensure superiority to its competitors by placing slot machines that are popular to players. Therefore, each game machine manufacturer makes efforts to provide slot machines that can attract the attention of players.
As one example, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-111137, published on Apr. 28, 2005) discloses a slot machine as a game machine that is provided with a display part including a touch panel. In this slot machine, a character and a numeric keypad are displayed on the display part, and the setting of the number of bets and the start of spin of reels are performed by using the touch panel.
However, in the configuration of the above conventional game machine, a player merely directly touches a screen of the touch panel. Therefore, unfortunately, it is not possible to provide an intuitive operational feeling to the player. The reason thereof is as follows.
In a game machine that includes a conventional push-button switch unit, a player presses down a push button by the number of bets to be set to thereby sensuously set the number of bets. However, in an operation of touching a screen of a touch panel, it is necessary to confirm on the screen as to whether the number of bets has been set by the touch in each operation. Therefore, a touch panel is inferior in operational feeling and click feeling to a conventional push button. Accordingly, it is not possible to provide an intuitive operational feeling. In addition, if each operation takes long time, a time required for a single game will be increased.
On the other hand, it is not preferred to make it difficult to view a display on a display part in order to solve such problems.
The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional problems, and is directed to provide a switch unit and a game machine that are capable of providing an intuitive operational feeling without making it difficult to view a display of a display part during an input operation.